1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer network technology, and more particularly, to a cross-platform system-fault warning system and method, which is designed for use with a cluster of various kinds of server platforms in a network system, for generating a warning message in the event that any one of the server platforms has an abnormal operating condition, such as program execution failure or insufficient hard disk space, so as to inform network administrators and users to take necessary maintenance or precautious actions.
2. Description of Related Art
Servers are used in a network system to control network access and serve up applications or data to the users. There are various kinds of servers, including, for example, Web servers, file servers, FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers, e-mail servers, application servers, database servers, and so on.
A company's internal network system is typically composed of a cluster of various kinds of server platforms running different operating systems. For example, the server cluster may include an Oracle database server, a SQL (Structured Query Language) database server, a UNIX server 13, an AS/400 server, an I2 engine server, a SAP server, a Web server, an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) server, and so on.
During operation of each individual server platform, if an abnormal operating condition, such as program execution failure or insufficient hard disk space, occurs, it will generate either an error-log file or an alert file (hereinafter collectively referred to as “system-fault indicating file”) to indicate the nature of the abnormal operating condition.
Conventionally, however, the format of the system-fault indicating file is specific to each kind of server platform, and therefore the various error-log files and alert files from the different server platforms would be unable to be centrally managed by the network administrator. In other words, when any one of the server platforms in the network system has an abnormal operating condition, the network administrator has to check all the server platforms one by one to find the faulted one and then perform required maintenance work on the faulted server platform.
The foregoing practice, however, is quite laborious and time-consuming, making the network maintenance work quite inefficient. Moreover, in the event that an abnormal operating condition is unperceived by network administrators or users, the abnormal operating condition may continue to exist, causing unpredicted consequences or disastrous system failures.